Posts Tagged ‘Tim Donaghy’

Disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy was sentenced to 15 months in prison today for his role in a gambling scandal. That prison sentence will be followed by three years of probation. Donaghy pleaded guilty to two felonies for providing inside information to professional gamblers and to betting on games, including those he officiated.

Donaghy’s lawyers had argued for a reduced sentence for their client claiming he is addicted to gambling. Maybe this is a bad analogy, but isn’t a convicted point fixer asking for leniency because of a gambling problem kind of like someone who kills their parents asking for mercy because he’s an orphan?

Foxsports.com has obtained the phone records of Tim Donaghy and say the disgraced NBA referee may not have acted alone in his gambling transgressions.

The NBA has maintained that Donaghy was a lone “rogue isolated criminal” who acted alone, but phone records obtained by Fox show Donaghy made over 100 phone calls to fellow ref Scott Foster at the same time he was talking to gamblers.

Fox says their research shows Donaghy made 136 phone calls to Foster and 124 calls to his bookie between October 2006 and April 2007. That’s the same time Donaghy admitted to betting on NBA games. Donaghy’s phone records show he didn’t phone any other referee more than 13 times.

The Fox story goes into elaborate details about Donaghy’s phone records. They also quote law enforcement sources who say the Foster calls look “suspicious.” The Fox story says the “conversations with Foster and others have led authorities to suspect the NBA betting scandal goes beyond Donaghy.”

Disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy was called out by prosecutors on Friday. They say Donaghy has exaggerated his claims of cooperation in a gambling investigation so that he could lessen his own prison term and avoid paying restitution.

The NBA is seeking over $1 million dollars in back compensation from Donaghy. Prosecutors also say that Donaghy was of virtually no use to them in prosecuting other members of his gambling ring. Although he did eventually roll over on his co-defendants, prosecutors say that Donaghy waited so long to do so that they already had their cases made and got convictions without his help.

Most importantly, the government is now officially on record as saying other NBA refs and league officials never fixed games. In court records filed Friday, the Feds disputed Donaghy’s claims of other internal NBA corruption. They say Donaghy’s statements “did not lead to evidence of prosecutable federal offenses.”

The government specifically rebuffed defense arguments that Donaghy should get a break on his sentence. Donaghy’s lawyers had argued he should receive leniency (or no sentence at all) for voluntarily coming forward and giving prosecutors inside dirt about alleged game-fixing and other misconduct by other referees and league officials.

The government did not believe Donaghy. Not only did they NOT ask for a lighter sentence for Donaghy, they actually suggested that he be jailed LONGER than his co-conspirators since he was the “central figure” in the gambling scandal they were involved in.

Donaghy will be sentenced July 14th. He faces up to 33 months in prison.

Yesterday disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy came out with some veiled allegations about other NBA officials possibly altering the outcome of games and questioned their integrity.

Originally I wasn’t even going to post on this topic. It’s obvious that Donaghy is a liar and a scumbag as well as a degenerate gambler who’s just trying to save his own sorry ass with the Feds.

But, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports makes a great point.

According to Wojnarowski’s latest column, commissioner David Stern and the NBA is only having to face this new round of accusations by Donaghy because of their own cheapness.

As Wojnarowski points out, Donaghy is a broken man. He has already lost his career, his reputation, his family and soon his freedom over his gambling and ties to organized crime.

Stern and the league are unhappy that under federal laws they are still required to eventually pay Donaghy a pension. They are further angered that Donaghy is trying to get out of serving any jail time for his role in betting on NBA games while being employed as a league ref.

Whether motivated by spite or greed, LAST WEEK the NBA filed a letter with federal probation officials. They are seeking $1 million in restitution damages from Donaghy. The league claims that’s the amount they invested in developing the rogue ref.

According to Wojnarowski seeking “blood money” from Donaghy is beneath the league. Besides, the guy is flat broke. He was a bad gambler, with a ton of legal fees who’s currently going through a divorce in a community property state.

Good luck getting one nickle out of Donaghy. The NBA should have known better and taken the high road.

Disgraced basketball referee Tim Donaghy placed bets on over 100 NBA games he worked in over a four year period. That’s the word from federal prosecutors in New York. A New York Post story says Donaghy bet on about half the games he worked in during the last four years of his career as an NBA ref.

VERTICALLY CHALLENGED EGOMANIAC DAVID STERN

The league is obviously vey sensitive about this topic. Commissioner David Stern has continually chided reporters and interviewers who ask him about Donaghy betting on games. Stern always maintains that Donaghy has never been charged with influencing the outcome of games (a laughable position if he bet A HUNDRED games he personally worked in and no others) and also wasn’t charged with betting the games. Stern’s position is Donaghy was charged with giving information to illegal bookmakers.

A couple of weeks ago NBA announcer Kevin Calabro was forced to come back from a break and recant his statement on the air that Donaghy was charged with betting on games. It was obvious that somebody from the league office gave him hell.

Also, ESPN (the NBA’s “broadcast partner”) pulled the AP story headlined, “Donaghy Bet on 100 Games, Prosecutors Say” off its website. The story is still on www.foxsports.com

The league’s website NBA.com also has no mention of the Donaghy story.